1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magazine of an air gun (air pistol), and more specifically relates to a magazine of air gun with a rotary clip (rotary magazine).
2. Description of the Related Art
A magazine of an air gun consists of a substantially rectangular magazine main body with a rotary clip which is a magazine part at either one end or at both ends. This magazine main body is inserted into and attached to a magazine retention part which is a cavity of the air gun main body.
FIGS. 16 through 23, which are fragmentary views, show a conventional magazine main body 100 having a clip rotational axis 101 to which a rotary clip 200 is rotatably attached, and a rotary clip attachment part 105 having an attachment wall 103 including a opposing wall 102 on which the clip rotational axis 101 is provided, formed on at least one end. A hit pin concave part 104 is formed on an upper and lower end of the rotary clip attachment part 105.
The rotary clip 200 has a column-shaped outer shape, a rotational axis hole at the center and multiple bores 201 into which surrounding bullets are loaded, and is rotatably attached in one rotational direction on a clip rotational axis 101 of the rotary clip attachment part 105. Each bore 201 has the shape of hollow cylinder with an internal diameter larger than a diameter of a pellet W.
The rotary clip 200 is placed on the clip rotational axis 101, and is rotated by a clip rotation mechanism or manually at the same time when a bullet is projected. A circular end surface 202 of the cylindrical rotary clip rotates closely facing the clip opposing wall 102.
In general, the rotary clip 200 has 6 to 8 bores 201. Normally, bullets are fired one by one with all bores 201 loaded. The rotary clip 200 has some styles of rotation. One embodiment is that the rotary clip 200 starts rotating when a trigger starts to be pulled and the rotation stops when the trigger is pulled completely. A bullet to be fired moves to a position to fire the bullet, gas is injected immediately and the bullet is fired. In another embodiment, after a bullet is fired, the rotary clip is rotated automatically by a clip rotational mechanism or manually. At the same time, the next bullet is placed at a firing position.
When all bullets loaded in a rotary clip have been fired, the magazine main body is removed from the magazine retention part. A shooter manually loads bullets such as pellets into each vacant bore of the rotary clip while rotating the rotary clip of the removed magazine. Then, the magazine main body is inserted into the magazine retention part.
The magazine with each bore of the rotary clip loaded with a bullet, especially with pellets loaded, is attached to the magazine retention part. However, when pellets are not completely inserted into the bore or the rear end of the pellet W projects from the end surface of the hollow tube of the bore 201 (refer to FIG. 22) when the magazine is attached to the magazine retention part, if the rotary clip 200 is rotated, for the conventional magazines, as shown in FIGS. 20 to 22, the pellet W in the bore 201 moves from a hit pin concave part 104 to the attachment wall 103 of the magazine main body 100, the projecting rear part of the pellet W gets stuck with the end side of the attachment wall 103, and the magazine cannot rotate (refer to FIGS. 20 through 23) which is a problem.
Additionally, when the magazine main body is removed from the magazine retention part and a shooter loads a pellet into each bore and rotates the magazine by one bore after loading a pellet into a bore, in the same manner, if a pellet projects from the hollow tubular end surface of the bore, the projecting pellet gets stuck with the end side of the attachment wall of the magazine main body and the rotary clip does not rotate, which is also a problem.